rotation
by composing
Summary: originalshipping. NOTONESHOT. AU. how was red supposed to know he wasn't going to see green anymore?


**A/N:** Rotation refers to the rotation of a clock. Wow it's been a long long time since I've written anything and pasted it on FF. But whatever, I think I'm back now!

_This one's for Green._

_rotation._

_i._

A pair of hands shot out into the empty canvas of the dark, towards a cloaked figure wearing not more than the red on his back. Screams of a woman filled the background. As the hands grew more increasingly desperate to get a hold of the man before him, they could not. Falling short maybe a few centimeters away, the owner of those appendages heard the laughter of the quilted wizard. It was a heartless cackle that seeped icy acid in every syllable. Recoiling slightly, the boy who had started this fruitless search to find the cloaked man had closed his eyes to shield the burning intensity of the light that had been brought out upon him. When he opened them once more, the wizard was gone and he was alone once more in the darkness.

That was, until he heard a voice, gentle and kind. The boy with the desperate hands did not understand what the voice was saying, but he heard warm solace. It was something that would help him escape this world of nothing but void. The voice extended an option, an offer, and the boy accepted. A chance to escape was greatly welcomed above all else.

* * *

><p>Somewhere on Mount Silver, Red awoke with a dull buzzing in his head.<p>

Somewhere in Kanto, Green woke with a violent jerk and a very intense pain.

Red was the first to recover from the buzzing in his head that was not more than a light migraine, and he made his way out of the cave to train his Pokemon, as per usual. The one constant on Mount Silver was the darkness and the eternal winter under which he trained. Never once had Red seen the flowers blossom, and he had a good grasp on the fact that the snow covered all grass. The flowers would never bloom again.

But there was something about this morning that didn't feel right, exactly. It felt strange, and with the tiniest sense of deja vu, he released Charizard and Blastoise. Although they appeared as normal, something didn't appear right to them as well. Maybe it was Red's now delayed movements as he tried to overcome this strange feeling, maybe it something in the air. It didn't taste icy cold, but instead with a sweet sour taste that did not mingle with their tongues.

Whatever it was, Red was determined to get out of it as soon as possible. He cleared his breath and held out his hand. On his left he held three fingers; this signified they were going with the third training session. Blastoise and Charizard got to work immediately. The third session usually meant moving rocks or clearing a path to the secondary cave near the base of the mountain in case the blizzards blew over the entrance. Without a delay in their movements, they set out to work immediately.

The sour taste of the air had disappeared, mostly. But Red still had a bad feeling about today. It would be better to call his Pokemon in early and rest. Something was wrong and it was taking a toll on his brain to figure out what.

While the champion had been worrying over his apparent deja vu, Espeon had silently slinked out of the cave. It ws then that Pikachu finally shifted his position from Red's shoulder. Noticing that his friend was now awake, he scampered down Red's shoulder to chat with the former eevee...telepathically. Not that Pikachu knew how to speak through minds, but Espeon certainly did. Red had noticed his pikachu disappearing moments ago, and slightly panicked. Turning around, however, he saw that his two favourites (he didn't really like to play favourites but occasionally it was necessary) were chatting it up. He didn't mind this, not much.

Sensing that the atmosphere was wrong was something Red did right. But how was he to know that he wouldn't see Green anymore after this?

* * *

><p>The migraine seemed more like a heavy headache than anything to Green. He wasn't much of a late sleeper and the pain woke him up much earlier than he would have liked. This caused a terrible urge to stay back in bed, but his throat was dry and above all else he wanted a drink of water. Fumbling out of bed, Green smashed directly into the nightstand that stood sturdy at his bedside. Profanities escaped his mouth like every other painful situation.<p>

Though, to be honest, he was just glad he could still have kids.

The alarm clock read 6:27. It was more than half an hour earlier than his normal signal to get his ass out of bed. The pain had smacked him hard enough to wake him up for good and he stood where he had fallen for a good, long time to snap out of a trance. He was still groggy. Not enough sleep, but thankfully the headache had disappeared.

It was not soon after he had headed for the kitchen that Green noticed the date. Sunday was the day he reserved to go visit that bastard of a friend on top of the stupid mountain. The gym leader had long overcame his childish hate for Red, but they weren't exactly on a frequent talking basis. Did that guy enjoy his company or hate it? Not making himself vocal was definitely a problem. He didn't mind "talking" for the both of them, it wasn't a problem, but not knowing what the hell that guy did up there, was.

Eevee had now stumbled into the kitchen. It took Green a good few minutes to stop snickering at his little princess smashing into the wall or something of a similar hardness. Luckily they were only light bops and nothing really painful, like his elegant fall, happened to his partner. Lightly stepping over her tail, Green picked Eevee up and set her back into her basket. It was much too early for her to be up and it was definitely not good for her to be so tired when he made the trip. She was a necessary companion for it, anyway.

Green knew that he would have to go shopping soon and prepare something nice for Red when he crawled up the mountain. Did that hat wearing freak still like curry? Or did he develop a taste for steak tartar in the raw bitterness up there? Whatever, you couldn't go wrong with meat, rice, and soy sauce or something warm for the cold temperature. Green wasn't about to make a five star meal for him when he could just come down himself.

The Pokemart didn't open until eight in morning, and usually Green didn't make the trip until ten. Sometimes he was early, if everything had been stocked the day before, and Red seemed to be happy about that. Though he had promised Red he would do it more often so they could spend more time together, he hadn't done it since that one trip three months ago.

It was only 6:35 now, and he began tackling the pile of papers that had been sitting at his desk since the week before. There was nothing to do, after all. Though paperwork had never appealed to him, it was certainly time to start on the stack that had been there since god knows when. If it wasn't for Leaf most of this would be godknowswhere. In this pile most of the text concerned renovating the gym, electric bills, water bills, the hiring of trainer to kick challengers' asses. It was all boring stuff.

But for something not boring, inside the paperwork pile stood an unopened letter. Curious, Green tore it open. There was no return address and there had been in fact almost no text but only two capitalized words.

**"FIND RED."**

What made it even stranger was that it was dated today. Green rolled his eyes, probably just a prank letter or something sent by the kids of this place, he thought and tossed it in the recycling bin. It was a good time to take a break. The clock was nearing 7.

The loud alarm clock did not start chiming until Green had made his way over to shut it off. IT was a terrible sound, of shrieking bells and pokemon cries. It was Red who had gotten him the clock, not that he thought about it.

After waking Eevee, Green changed into his workout outfit and went out for his daily run. Eevee happily trotted after him. The rest of the preparations went smoothly like any other Sunday, in peace and boring. He said his hellos and paid his dues where needed, even walking by the gym to check if anyone was stupid enough to challenge him on that day when the sign stated the status openly. He felt in an oddly good mood, though the feeling that something bad was coming pricked at him. The letter was strange, but not strange enough to get him bothered thinking about it.

"Visiting Red again, right?" The clerk asked him as he was picking out last minute objects to shove into his cart. Denying this furiously, Green was unable to hide the redness of his face, changing him into a tomato. Shoving the last bits of, ironically, tomatos into his cart, he paid quickly and charged out as fast as his legs would carry him. Eevee found herself smiling.

All that was left for the day was to visit Red. The statement from earlier echoed in his head. 'Find Red'? Why would he need to find Red when Red was on that mountain all alone? Though he didn't think much of it when he stumbled upon it, it scared him now. What if something did happen to Red up there? Wild Pokemon could have gotten to him, Pokemon higher levelled than the 80 something Pikachu. What if Team Rocket was still active, even after they'd supposedly disbanded? Every possibility seemed like a death threat, and he made his team march up that mountain as quickly as possible. Eevee had been worried when Green's brows furrowed, but didn't pay it much mind as she would see Pikachu soon.

* * *

><p>What Green saw up there, he could not repeat nor believe. In the everlasting winters of Mount Silver hid a deadly secret.<p>

When he made his way up to the mountains, he found a body fainted on the floor. At first, he thought it was a rock that had been tossed here when Red was training. The bastard must have been warm and toasty in that cave of his. He felt relaxed, if only for a little. Upon closer inspection and noticing the bloody splotches trailed by footsteps of blood, Green felt like something was wrong. He cleared away all the patches of snow immediately.

He found the body of his best friend. No breath, no heartbeat, nothing but the raging of the blizzards behind him. At his feet, Red was dead, simple as that. In front of his cave, puddles of crimson that had once been warm stood patiently. There were…evidently signs of a struggle. His expression had been scared, of surprise and shock and fear. What he had seen, Green could only guess. Who had done this? Why would they do this? Jealousy? What could scare the fearless Red?

For a moment, Green swallowed his fear.

Scrambled about the floor, stood Red's pokeballs. Green released them immediately, demanding a recollection of what had happened earlier. All of them stood empty and there were no further signs of Pokemon being in the area. How could Pokemon just abandon their trainers like that? He knew Pikachu, Pikachu wouldn't do this. The anxiety scared him, what the hell was going on? The wounds on Red, specifically, a hole punctured through his stomach, were obviously signs of murder. In addition, Pikachu never left his trainer's side. They were closer than Eevee and Green, as much as the latter hated to admit.

Carefully, he bent down on one knee to touch the frozen cheek of his best friend, even closing his eyes. There was no burial here on Mount Silver, but matches still worked. That is, if he wanted to cremate his best friend in the first place. Did Red want that? Instead of being exposed to the cold like this?

What was he supposed to do with a dead body? Green was tense, Green was scared. Nothing could have prepared him for this. He wanted to cry. Everything about this scene made him feel horrible. Pokemon were different, Pokemon were companions, yes, but none had ever been as close as Red or ever would be. He didn't dare release Eevee now. Eevee would be worried, where was Pikachu? What the hell was going on?

"Red, you damn bastard," Green whispered quietly, suddenly tears appearing in his eyes. Roughly, he brushed them away and stood up. "I'll be back soon, to…you know."

His mind briefly went back to think of the letter. How did it know that something was going to happen? There were no Alakazam around here and there were no Xatu. How could something like that happen, and in the human common tongue, no less?

Something behind him had shifted its shadow. Green was on alert immediately. Only now did he release his Pokemon, sending them to scout while keeping Eevee in her capsule. Something was off here on Mount Silver, and it wasn't just the death of Red. Green would be stupid to admit that this place was without it's ghosts.

When his Pokemon returned, they found nothing but Red's body and a bunch of pokeballs lying about. There were no signs that Green had ever been here. But it only took a few moments for them to notice the glowing eyes at the center of the cave opening.

The blizzards on Mount Silver raged on.


End file.
